Editing Crittenden–Johnson Resolution (section)

==Historical background==
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The Crittenden–Johnson Resolution was passed almost unanimously by the [[37th United States Congress]] on July 25, 1861.<ref name=Senate-Journal>{{cite journal|
url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=053/llsj053.db&recNum=90&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj05321%29%29%230530091&linkText=1 | pages=91–92|journal=Journal of the Senate|date=July 25, 1861|access-date=June 3, 2013|publisher=Library of Congress|title=37th Congress of the United States}}</ref> The bill was introduced as the War Aims Resolution, but it became better known for its sponsors Representative [[John J. Crittenden]] of [[Kentucky]] and Senator [[Andrew Johnson]] of [[Tennessee]], both slaveholders. The [[American Civil War]] had begun on April 12, 1861, with various Southern states seceding in the following months. Both houses of Congress passed this resolution days after the [[First Battle of Bull Run]] made it clear that the war would not end quickly. It passed almost unanimously in July, but later that December, congress made an attempt to reaffirm the Crittenden–Johnson Resolution. This was an effort to maintain the initial promise of non-interference with slavery in both contended and rebellious states. However it was instead rejected during this session by a party vote motioned by [[Thaddeus Stevens]].<ref name=Woodburn>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifethaddeusste01woodgoog | last=Woodburn | first = James Albert | title = The Life of Thaddeus Stevens: A Study in American Political History | pages = [https://archive.org/details/lifethaddeusste01woodgoog/page/n194 172]–173 |year= 1913 | publisher = Bobbs-Merrill}}</ref>

[[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] was concerned that the [[slavery|slave]] states of [[Missouri]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Maryland]] in the crucial upper south might leave the Union to join the [[Confederate States of America]]. If Maryland were lost, [[Washington, D.C.]] would be entirely surrounded by Confederate territory.  Both Missouri and Kentucky were slave states of questionable loyalty to the Union that bordered on important Union territory; Lincoln was born in Kentucky and losing his birth state would be seen as a political failure. Also, the [[Ohio River]] marks Kentucky's northern border and was strategically important as the economic lifeline of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana--each of which shipped goods down this river to the Mississippi River for sale or further shipment in [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]. Delaware (the other slave state that remained in the Union) had so few slaves that its loyalty would not be questioned.